Trucks line up for diesel Friday at Pan Western Corp.'s North Las Vegas railway delivery center. The company provides an alternative to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners' pipeline, but the pipeline delivers nearly all gasoline, diesel and jet fuel used in Southern Nevada. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners' new pipeline expansion project will enable Las Vegas to keep pace with increasing demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel in the short-term, according to analysts.

Yet, members of the blue ribbon commission on Southern Nevada's fuel delivery system remain worried about long-term prospects for satisfying the area's insatiable hunger for more fuel.

That was the consensus following a vote Friday to finalize panel's fuel supply report and send it to the Clark County Commission.

"I don't think the additional pipeline of Kinder Morgan is the panacea for the next 30 years, but it certainly helps us a lot near term," said John Haycock, a blue ribbon commission member and chief executive officer of Haycock Petroleum.

"We are going to have to have infrastructure to allow us to source from other areas, from the Gulf (of Mexico states), from the Rocky Mountains," Haycock said.

"Obviously, the most critical thing is to get more delivery capacity (for fuel)," said Randall Walker, director of the county aviation department and chairman of the blue ribbon commission.

Kinder Morgan of Houston addressed the short-term fuel supply issue Thursday when it announced that it will spend $388 million to expand the 550-mile Calnev pipeline. The pipeline runs from California and delivers almost all of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel consumed in Southern Nevada.

Kinder Morgan said it will lay a new 16-inch diameter pipeline from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas, increasing capacity to 200,000 barrels per day. Kinder Morgan said it will add new pump stations, boosting capacity to more than 300,000 barrels per day by 2009 or 2010.

The blue ribbon commission also heard Pacific Texas Pipeline Company of Phoenix propose a new pipeline that would deliver gasoline from Texas to Las Vegas. WesPac Pipelines of Newport Beach, Calif., outlined plans for a line to a proposed refinery in Yuma, Ariz. Holly Energy Partners of Dallas is promoting a pipeline that would bring gasoline to Southern Nevada from the Salt Lake City area.

"We would certainly prefer to have delivery capacity from another source," Walker said.

Otherwise, Southern Nevada will continue to encounter temporary fuel supply interruptions because of California floods, earthquakes and train derailments, Walker said.

Even if California remains the largest supplier of fuel in Southern Nevada, the area would benefit from another source of fuel, he said. Arizona, for example, gets about 40 percent of its gasoline and diesel from Texas.

"They cannot get 100 percent of their capacity from Texas, but they can get something from Texas, which is better than nothing," Walker said.

While the commission's proposals are long-range, the panel recommended that the county start land-use planning, zoning changes and streamlining the regulatory process so that pipeline companies can build facilities more quickly in the future.

"The marketplace is going to decide what the viable projects are," Walker said.

Some analysts fear California will be unable to keep up with the growing fuel demand as the population continues to grow in its markets, which include Nevada, Arizona and Oregon.

"We see an ever tightening market for California and the states we supply," said Rob Schlichting, a spokesman for the California Energy Commission.

California has been importing refined petroleum fuels since 1986. California gets fuel by barge from the east coast of Canada, the Caribbean, the Gulf Coast of Texas, Finland and the Middle East, he said.

The Golden State imports 10 percent to 12 percent of the gasoline it uses already, but its ports need to expand in order to handle increasing quantities of imported gasoline and other fuels, Schlichting said.

The California Energy Commission also advocates energy conservation including higher efficiency standards for new cars.

It favors vehicles that can use other fuels, including natural gas, ethanol and biodiesel. While so-called "flex-fuel" cars are needed for 85 percent ethanol fuel, even standard vehicles can use gasoline that is 10 to 15 percent ethanol, Schlichting said.